I Love My New MS300!

[Victor]

BUT, I've got to say, I am majorly disappointed with the Gracenote functionality. I've got about 20 CD's loaded into the MS300 so far, and it's only been able to pull info for less than 50% automatically. I've been using iTunes for a couple years and I've never had a problem with it getting the info. What's really odd, is that on a multi disk set, it's able to pull the info on 1 or 2 of the disks, but not all of them. These are very popular CD's, like Doobie Brothers & Fleetwood Mac, rather than obscure ones, & again, disks that iTunes is able to access with no problems.

I have had good luck with Gracenote so far. I have loaded 38 CDs so far and put in some of my more obscure CDs to see if gracenote would pick up info. Gracenote found info on every disc and it had no cover art for only 2 (Kendra Shank-Afterglow and King's X-Faith, Hope, Love). I have had a few discs that did not pick up the info on the first try, I just opened the disc drawer to give it a second try.

Are the discs that Gracenote has trouble finding info on greatest hit collections?

Victor

 

[jimmyc1996]

I have had a few discs that did not pick up the info on the first try, I just opened the disc drawer to give it a second try.

Are the discs that Gracenote has trouble finding info on greatest hit collections?

Victor

Victor
You can go into options and ask the it to research it again . Also you sometimes you can find info if you change the title line just a little, ie take
the artist names out
Jimmyc

 

[Victor]

Victor
You can go into options and ask the it to research it again . Also you sometimes you can find info if you change the title line just a little, ie take
the artist names out
Jimmyc

I did see the options menus but I did not think of changing the title line. Thanks for the tip. :thmbsp:

Victor

 

[masterlu]

I did see the options menus but I did not think of changing the title line. Thanks for the tip. :thmbsp:

Victor

That works like a charm.

 

[mike175gr]

There is one big downside so far: the MS300 is noisy. :tears: I know the MS300 is basically a computer and I was expecting some noise, but not this much. Also the hard drive is spinning (making noise) any time the MS300 is plugged in. :thumbsdn: I have the MS300 in my main rack but the noise in a small listening room is unacceptable.
Victor

Victor,

My MS300 is super quiet. I am really sensitive to this as I had an HD Tivo in my audio shelf and it was LOUD and it drove me nuts!

If you are not able to exchange the unit perhaps some sound absorbing material might help.

I love my MS300 and I use it every day!

 

[jimmyc1996]

VICTOR
another tip
Sometimes you can find the info for an album but not the art work. You can go into options and just search the artist name and get other album art work
to fill in
Jimmyc

 

[Jericho]

VICTOR
another tip
Sometimes you can find the info for an album but not the art work. You can go into options and just search the artist name and get other album art work
to fill in
Jimmyc

You can also scan the cover and use the *.jpg image.It should not be larger then 40kb

 

[jimmyc1996]

You can also scan the cover and use the *.jpg image.It should not be larger then 40kb

Interesting
I have not hooked up my scanner in years. I'm always learning on this site
Jimmyc:thmbsp:

 

[kaplan59]

Another option to scanning in the cover art yourself is to go to amazon, search for your CD, and save the cover art image from that web page. You may need to either crop or resize the image, but that's quick and easy to do with just about any image editing program. You can then upload the cover art image via the web interface to the MS300 (look under Options, Edit Disc in the menus). From what I recall, the MS300 doesn't want an image size that is greater than 200x200 pixels.

 

[sully1801]

Are the discs that Gracenote has trouble finding info on greatest hit collections?

Victor[/QUOTE]


Yes, for the most part, they are greatest hits & box set packages..
I thought I'd start with those...
Is there know issues with gracenote finding those type?

 

[ericbee]

Kaplan: that is exactly what I do. Amazon has it all and you dont need to resize it either just click on the art then right click "save as" and call it STING and save it to your dektop. In the menu settings just go to edit music and add the art. I bang out about 3 covers a minute this way and its much faster than gracenote, besides I pick pick the art I want rather than have them pick it for me.

 

[Victor]

Are the discs that Gracenote has trouble finding info on greatest hit collections?

Victor

Yes, for the most part, they are greatest hits & box set packages..
I thought I'd start with those...
Is there know issues with gracenote finding those type?

After buying music for years I have seen many many many hits collections (some from very small companies) and I can see how these would confuse Gracenote. Judging from the fact that Gracenote has picked up info and cover art from LPs I have recorded on my MS300 I would say Gracenote is actually sampling the music to find a match. So some of these box sets could have an unusual song order which does not match their data.

With all the great info in this thread you have several options to try to get the info and art.

Victor

 

[sully1801]

With all the great info in this thread you have several options to try to get the info and art.

AGREED!!
Thanks again everyone for all your comments, reviews & advice!
I very much appreciate this forum & all it's contributers!!:thmbsp:

Chris

 

[jrsystems]

I've ripped about 1000 CD's into my MS300 including replacing less listened to albums with new purchases. It has not found maybe a dozen albums and yes, it does sometimes have trouble with box sets.

Still love it. Best interface there is. I have a Sonos, now extended to 4 rooms. The best multi-room media hub there is. Unlimited storage through the computer, incredibly easy multi-room interface, terrific controller, and I love the Rhapsody service. However, the MS300 still has a far better interface. I just got an MDA1000 and they sound comparable when put through it.

 

[bigpoppapump]

On many occasions I have had to "rework" the title of the albumn in order for Gracenote to find it. When the title is entered by Gracenote out of sequence or with commas, then look out; it is not going to find it.

Thanks for the welcome PHC1, I am deeply in debt to all of you who walked my thru the issues when I made my choices on what to buy.

I have been enjoying the heck out of my Mac set up. I can also verify the lack of loss of quality in the music. I can run at the same time music on my 300 and my Mac SACD 201 player. Unless its a SACD you really have to strain to hear any difference. Victor you are still the man. You are closing the gap with masterlu!

 

[Victor]

Victor you are still the man. You are closing the gap with masterlu!

That is unlikely! But you did make me smile.

Here is the best way to show the gap between me and Masterlu:

Masterlu=Ferrari collection
Victor=1996 Dodge Caravan

I do love my music though. :yes:

Victor

 

[Victor]

Can anyone explain how the MS300 distributes music throughout the house


Be it coincidence or not, the McIntosh Music Server MS300 makes the similarity to the Apple Macintosh blatant. After a mere 5 minutes, the MS300 is completely ready for business and music can be distributed and listened to throughout the whole house. Read on for the McIntosh moment. The large box that showed up on our doorstep one day contained a modest-looking piece of audio equipment in typical McIntosh style - black with aluminum edges and accents. In fact, it looks just like an ordinary McIntosh CD player with some additional buttons. The backside reveals that there's more to this baby than just another RedBook player. Digging deeper inside the delivery box, we spotted a wireless keyboard and a sizeable remote control.

http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/mcintosh/ms300.html

I was just on the phone with MS300 support on an unrelated question and I asked them about your question, here is what they said:

You can use the MS300 to stream music to a PC through the ethernet connection. So any PC that is in the home network and hooked up to the local ethernet hub will be able to play music from the MS300. I did a quick try to get this to work on my computer but I did not see the settings that needed to be changed and I could not get it to work on my PC. I don't plan on doing this and I'm not a computer savy guy so most of what he told me I did not fully understand.

If you want more info on this you could download the manuals from McIntosh and call the customer support phone number that is on page 2. I don't know if they mind answering questions from non-owners but the manuals are public info at the McIntosh site, so the phone number is also public info.

http://www.mcintoshlabs.com/manuals.aspx

Victor

 

[Brice]

Hi guys,

Anyone has hooked-up his MS300 to a TouchPanel? Any advice here?

Thanks,

Brice.

 

[JimBob]

I was just on the phone with MS300 support on an unrelated question and I asked them about your question, here is what they said:

You can use the MS300 to stream music to a PC threw the ethernet connection. So any PC that is in the home network and hooked up to the local ethernet hub will be able to play music from the MS300. I did a quick try to get this to work on my computer but I did not see the settings that needed to be changed and I could not get it to work on my PC. I don't plan on doing this and I'm not a computer savy guy so most of what he told me I did not fully understand.

If you want more info on this you could download the manuals from McIntosh and call the customer support phone number that is on page 2. I don't know if they mind answering questions from non-owners but the manuals are public info at the McIntosh site, so the phone number is also public info.

http://www.mcintoshlabs.com/manuals.aspx

Victor

Thanks Victor. That's what I suspected. Any computer hooked up to the network will be able to recieve music from the MS300. I was hoping it'd be something different, but I suspect in the future, real wireless streaming will happen.

 

[misterdoggy1]

Guys,

I just bought the MS300 and was wondering whether or not I needed to have a separate monitor for the menu's or just use the LCD TV I use for everything else.

I guess the question is more like, Do I really want the menu on a 52 inch LCD whilst listening to music at the same time.

Do you MS300 owners have an opinion on what you prefer. I could invest in a small 10" lcd, its just my wife will think this is way over the top (spousal fear)